Gus Walz won over the internet wearing his heart on his sleeve at the DNC. But the bullying that followed is what kids experience every day, some say.

A tearful, unscripted moment between Tim Walz and his 17-year-old son, Gus, has unleashed a flood of praise and admiration – but also prompted ugly online bullying.

Gus Walz, who has a nonverbal learning disorder as well as anxiety and ADHD, watched excitedly from the front row of Chicago’s United Center and sobbed openly Wednesday night as his father, the Democratic nominee for vice president, delivered his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.

…

Conservative columnist and right-wing provocateur Ann Coulter mocked the teenager’s tears. “Talk about weird,” she wrote on X. The message has since been deleted.

Mike Crispi, a Trump supporter and podcaster from New Jersey, mocked Walz’s “stupid crying son” on X and added, “You raised your kid to be a puffy beta male. Congrats.”

Alec Lace, a Trump supporter who hosts a podcast about fatherhood, took his own swipe at the teenager: “Get that kid a tampon already,” he wrote, an apparent reference to a Minnesota state law that Walz signed as governor in that required schools to provide free menstrual supplies to students.

  • Deway@lemmy.world
    48·
    3 months ago

    A kid is incredibly proud of his dad and they mock him? The fuck is wrong with the world.

      • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
        10·
        3 months ago

        Oh man you should have seen my ex the first time I cried after she admitted she cheated on me the first time.

        She was so angry that I was crying she started stammering and yelling that it was my fault, etc. it actually stopped me from crying because I thought it was so funny she said that.

        But I didn’t learn my lesson and the whole thing repeated 4 years later and it again was all my fault. That time I learned my lesson, it wasn’t that I wasnt allowed to cry, that’s fine. It’s that I wasn’t allowed to have emotions.

        • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
          3·
          3 months ago

          Sorry you had an abusive ex. I hope things are better now.

          I think the two emotions men are allowed to have are anger and happiness. Anything else is viewed as weakness.